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Data Backup - Do you have a data recovery and backup plan?
Data backup is seldom a part of a home computer user’s or business IT administrator’s plans, we all say it will never occur to us or our company, but in reality, we are just psychologically preparing for the time we lose our data. It’s like trying to stop smoking, we all know we should do it but will find every reason not to. So be truthful with yourself and ask yourself the question, do you have a backup plan for your data, or more significantly, do you have a restore plan which will defend your business if something goes wrong? All business owners and leaders will now tell you that computers are way past being a beneficial part of our lives, but now they are an absolute need. We admit the data which resides on our computer infrastructure is the most important asset of any organization. I ask again, what would happen if you lost your data and what are you going to do to protect it?
The reasons for data loss are infinite, hardware failure, human intervention, natural disaster, software failure, theft, and loss, we can go on, but we can be sure of one thing, as time goes by the list of these reasons will get longer and longer.
Ever lost anything or anything that was stolen before?
I have been in the IT business for some 25 years now, and as you can imagine, I have heard some strange stories of how computers and servers have been stolen. a colleague forgot he left his laptop on the roof of his car; the problem is he realized when he was 160 miles down the road (lost data, laptops stolen from back seats of cars (data lost). My friend’s office was broken into twice in two nights, the first time was caused by the loss of desktop computers and a completely trashed alarm system (some data loss), and the second night was to take the servers together with the backup device and media. Apparently, the heavy stuff was taken the second night as the thieves had more time due to the alarm not being fixed fast enough (total data loss and company ceased trading within 8 months). Save yourself money; avoid data loss in the first place by executing a data backup plan.
Hardware Failure
If you have succeeded in never losing your laptop or have your whole IT infrastructure taken then well done, so now let’s prepare ourselves for hardware failure. There are primarily only three mechanical parts within a laptop, computer, or server; first is a hard drive, then a backup drive, and lastly, a CD or DVD. Hard drives do fail and if it has not occurred yet it will. Don’t get me wrong, if you take a failed drive to an expert, they will possibly get most of your data back but expect to pay in excess of £5000 for the pleasure. Save yourself money; prevent data loss in the first place by executing a data backup plan.
Fire or Disaster (natural or not).
I live in the UK, it’s a lovely place as we don’t have issues with earthquakes, hurricanes, forest fires, etc. so there will never be any huge natural disaster that will wipe out the majority of a city. This is what I thought 'til the Buncefield oil refinery blew up and crushed everything within a 3-mile radius. There are a million and one reasons and situations I can give you demonstrating why you should back up your business data. We all know the run-through of data backup is nothing more than good common sense. Mission-critical or sensitive data you don't want or cannot afford to lose should be protected. PROTECT YOUR DATA! If you honestly think you don’t need to back up your data because you will never lose it, please stop reading this article and go do something less boring
Let’s talk about the several ways of securing your data and other backup services. If you take the next on board you will be capable to find the answer which will best suit you or your company.
Backup to CD solution.
To back up your file data to CD is easy, but it may be time-consuming to do this every night and you will have to be well-organized to put up to an hour aside to carry out this job every night. To back up data to a CD drive is not an automated procedure and we all know people get busy. Once you have backed your data to the CD please always verify that the data is really on the CD and then take it home with you. There is no point leaving it to be destroyed by fire or stolen along with your hardware.
Please do not use a CD to archive data (safe documents for a long time) as I would not imagine this form of media to stay stable for more than 2 years.
Backing up to CD has many restrictions but it is surely better than not backing up your data at all.
RAID – Not backup but will defend your server disks.
All servers should be given every chance to stay alive, running a RAID configuration will help avoid data loss due to hard drive failure. If you have three drives running in a RAID 5 configuration, your server will bear a single drive failure. RAID will not protect you from flood, theft, fire, or any other disaster waiting to happen, but does offer business steadiness.
This resolution doesn't typically protect you from theft as the extra hard drives for RAID storage are usually installed in your computer or in other equipment on site. It typically won't protect you from fire either so this technique does have its limits.
Secure Offsite Data Backup and Recovery via a third-party association.
Offsite Backup or Backing up via the Internet procedures are typically related to larger enterprise companies. In the past, the high cost of high-speed connectivity has been unreasonable to smaller companies.
This technique of data backup is now become completely accepted and is gaining drive around the globe. The main reason for such development is because the price of high-speed internet connections has greatly reduced, almost every business and home is connected to the internet via a minimum 2MB pipe as an outcome it is now possible to backup high volumes of data to a secure offsite data center.
For me, the best part of an offsite backup resolution is not the high encryption security levels in place, the price, or the purpose-designed replicated infrastructure where your data is kept, but it is the fact that an offsite backup resolution is a completely automated process. Set and forget, once you have set the software to back up your data at a definite time of every day you can just forget it and let it get on with its job of protecting your data.
If I controlled your backup procedure, I would implement all three of the preferences mentioned. A RAID system for business stability, offsite backup to strongly protect all my business data, and to allow a quick restore, and a CD backup of just my mission-critical data which will keep my business on the trot.